Carol Bartz Joins Yahoo! as Chief Executive Officer — Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), a leading global brand and one of the world's most trafficked Internet destinations, announced today that Carol Bartz, a veteran technology executive who was most recently Executive Chairman of Autodesk (NASDAQ …

Yahoo Confirms Bartz Pick as CEO; No. 2 Exec Decker Out — As reported by BoomTown and others, Yahoo has officially selected former Autodesk (ADSK) head Carol Bartz as its next CEO, effective immediately. — She will also join the Yahoo board. — In a press release this afternoon …

Yahoo's New CEO: The Best News I've Heard All Day — No mixed feelings on this blog, I think Yahoo naming Carol Bartz its new CEO (if the reports are true) is great news for the company. First, my usual disclaimer that I say all the following as a reporter, not a Yahoo contractor.

This News Made Me Smile A Mile Wide — Like I do every morning, I logged into Techmeme to find this news: — That's an image, sorry about that, here's the link to the WSJ story, but I wanted you all to see how I heard the news. — This is so great on so many levels. Let's start with the first reason.

Mac clone maker claims it bought OS X from Apple — Embattled Psystar says Apple can't tell it what to do with legit copies of the OS — Computerworld) The Mac clone maker being sued by Apple Inc. because it installs Mac OS X on generic Intel-based systems said it bought copies …

Marchex, Microsoft criticized on mobile advertising techniques — Seattle online advertising company Marchex is among those criticized in a 52-page complaint [PDF] today brought by the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. Public Interest Research Group that says mobile marketers are using “unfair and deceptive practices.”

Obama's new BlackBerry: The NSA's secure PDA? — President-elect Barack Obama checks his BlackBerry while riding on his campaign bus in Pennsylvania last March. — (Credit: Pete Souza/ Rapport Press ) — Bill Clinton sent only two e-mail messages as president and has yet to pick up the habit.

Is a Microsoft Search Deal With Yahoo “Ticked and Tied”? — Several sources close to Yahoo and Microsoft have told BoomTown that a search partnership deal between the companies is more likely to be signed quickly now that Yahoo has picked former Autodesk (ADSK) CEO Carol Bartz as its next CEO.

It's Business Time! — Twitter receives a crushing amount of partnership opportunities on a regular basis—it's a good problem to have yet until now there has been nobody on staff dedicated solely to business development. Things are changing. We hired Kevin Thau as our Director of Mobile Business Development late last month.

Could This Be Your All-in-One Social Network? — Long time innovator Marc Canter has made a proposal for a system to let users integrate all their social networks from around the web into one central dashboard. He calls it the DiSO Dashboard. — So far it's just a vision …

Report Calls Online Threats to Children Overblown — The Internet may not be such a dangerous place for children after all. — A high-profile task force created by 49 state attorneys general to find a solution to the problem of sexual solicitation of children online has concluded …

New ways to get around with the Transit Layer — I'm pleased to announce the launch of the Transit Layer on Google Maps in more than 50 cities around the world making it easier for citizens and tourists around the globe to access public transportation line information in their cities.

Disclosure of information vulnerability in Safari — Note: The original version of this page contained a simple workaround for this issue which I believed would protect users against this problem. I have since discovered (on 13 January 2009) that changing the default RSS feed reader application …

Cable modems to hit 300Mbps with 8-channel bonding — Cable modem speeds are about to zoom a whole lot higher. Thanks to the magic of channel bonding, DOCSIS 3.0 modems will soon be able to reach 300+Mbps—though cable users won't see Internet speeds in that range anytime soon.

No More Free Jott For You — In August voice-to-text service Jott moved out of beta and added a premium feature for $4/month. Since then, the company says, about 30% of Jott's active users have opted for the premium, no-ads version of the service. — People use it to send voice …

Dell said nearing smartphone launch — Dell is getting closer to releasing its long-rumored first smartphone, according to a research note by Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Investigations within Dell's supply chain point reportedly indicate that a Dell smartphone is “closer to reality” …

Reinventing the tech incubator — Tech Daily: Betaworks is bringing back a '90s icon. — NEW YORK (Fortune) — Like hip hop and Dockers, tech incubators were faddish in the late 1990s. These companies offered promising dot-coms work space, back office services like human resources and accounting, and a bit of funding.

Friendly DRM Is An Oxymoron — from the nothing-friendly-about-it dept — While the era of DRM on music may finally be ending, it appears that some other industries still haven't quite come to terms with the two simple facts that a few industries are finally realizing: (1) DRM does not work …

Huffington Post Acquires Comedy News Site 236.com From IAC — Huffington Post is wasting little time in putting last month's $25 million funding to work: as expected, the company says its buying comedy news site 236.com. The comedy site was created in Nov. 2007 as part of a joint venture between Huffington Post and IAC (NSDQ: IACI).

The 30th Anniversary of the (No Good) Spreadsheet App — Spreadsheets have elevated the once lowly bean counter to the executive suite—and enabled him to make some truly horrible decisions. — 2009 marks the 30-year anniversary of the now-ubiquitous spreadsheet program.

ScreenToaster 2.0 Takes on Jing and Screencast.com — ScreenToaster is an easy to use screencasting application that lives in your browser. When we first reviewed it, it was still in private beta, but today, the company has started its public beta test and added enough new features …